My Maruti and I

I don’t have a thing for cars. I couldn’t care less if I sat in a Skoda, Mercedes, Lamborghini or Rolls. The other day, my kids were discussing cars  they want Praneet to buy, and one of them said ,‘the car I hate the most is the Maruti 800.’

And I thought to myself - Little do they know! What the original Maruti 800 meant to a whole generation of middle-class Indians.

When we were growing up, Dads had scooters, and as they moved up the corporate ladder, a company or self owned car. The world then was divided between people who drove Fiats and those who drove Ambassadors. And both of them considered themselves superior. We were Aamby drivers and scornful of  the Fiat owners. They looked cooped up inside those matchbox cars and the steering wheel seemed to move a lot more than it steered the car! The Fiat was slower than the slowest cycle on the road and god forbid if you got stuck behind one. For us, it was always the fuddy-duddies who drove the Fiat. The Aamby was the King of the Road - strong and solid with loads of leg space. Ofcourse, many a morning (esp in the winters)  the street would be full of cars that owners were trying to start up desperately. And it was common, and fun , to push cars to help them start.

And then came the Maruti. I remember the pride on my Dad’s face that we were the first few hundreds to receive our Maruti in Oct’83.People would stare at the red car with envy and admiration as it hit the road. 

Our red Maruti was a dream! It was fitted with an original engine and had all imported parts . The car was so silent that Dad would check it at the traffic light to ensure the engine was still running. It had great mileage compared to both the Aamby and the Fiat and it came in funky colours too. My parents had lived abroad so we were used to various cars, but all of us loved our little red Maruti. 

Marutis changed the way young Indians drove their cars. It spawned a whole generation of cool dudes. It was the done thing to roll down all the windows, put blaring music and cruise through the GK 1 market, and pretend you did not know people were watching you. At night, loads of Maruti cars at the ice-cream carts at India Gate had the hatchback open with people sitting in the boot, feeling important! 

I used to be delighted when I was given permission to drive the car to college. It was thrilling to overtake every car on the road and zip up and down the flyovers in Delhi. The whole day we would drive around CP and other favourite haunts.And like all good ‘Indian’ things, we ‘please adjusted’ in the tiny Maruti car too. My bunch of pals used to fit into the car, without a complaint, and tumble out when we reached our destination. 

When I think back on my college days, it was the Maruti car that gave me a sense of safety. I was super confident that the car would never stall. That its tiny-ness and pick-up would help me escape any unsavory event. The Maruti car liberated me - it enabled me to travel anywhere , at anytime of the day. My cousins and I would sneak away regularly to grab a quick bite at those dirty chinese vans, do a recce of the current crushes’ houses and pick up stuff we did not want parents to know!

Ofcourse, we all moved on to other cars - bigger, better, more expensive ones! But today if I could hunt out the Maruti we owned, I would buy it back and preserve it forever!! 

That was the only car I truly loved!!